What to Look For in A Flash Drive (Soul)

With all the function, convenience, capacity and security being designed into flash drives of late, it's high time for some high style to enter the memory-stick market space. I'm not talking tacked-on sleekness but rather the real deal, the genuine, down-home article. Viewers of HGTV Black Friday night got a glimpse of exactly what I'm talking about on the 7 p.m. Eastern special, "15 Fresh Handmade Gift Ideas." If you missed it, not to worry. The same special is being replayed Friday, December 3rd, at 2 p.m. Eastern. If you did see it, you saw something special indeed, the soulful flash-memory device which is also a real musical instrument, the same one of choice of both cowboys and Blues Brothers.

That's right, it's also a harmonica, a harmonica that really plays and, thanks to its flash memory, stores a video harmonica lesson onboard called, "Five Basic Steps to Playing," taught by The Backyard Harmonica Teacher.

Finally, all the original benefits of the memory stick have been updated with something as old, authentic and soulful as the Oklahoma hills Woody Guthrie himself once roamed.

Think about it. Mass merchandise outlets, especially on Black Friday morning, are full of plain old, vacuous pen drives. What's needed is one that's got personality earned by walking the line and taking its time. One that's got soul and can even play the blues.

This brings an authentic identity to the flash memory utility. Authenticity is something that can't be substituted, especially not by a marketing agency's sort of "branding." To get musical about it, real authenticity is what it is because it's been tempered by time and use so that it has acquired that certain intangible patina called, "soul."

The harmonica has owned that kind of identity for more than 150 years. And it's more than a musical instrument with a past; it's a portable one that's played an important part in America's unique musical history.

The harmonica is a winner of an identity for flash memory not for what it possesses but for what it lacks:

It has no identity crisis.

For this reason, the harmonica USB's appearance on HGTV also signals the validity of that oft-unsung musical hero. The harmonica lesson that comes on it attempts to uphold that deep significance, as well.

HGTV should be applauded for recognizing that, though small in stature, the harmonica's soulfulness rings truest by virtue of being so well worn. Its migration story tells a lot about us as a people. We find the harmonica in our past, our present, and in our Horatio Alger outlook that size is not everything in the whole story of success.

The harmonica's past is documented today by its subtle presence in nearly half of the music we listen to today. And, like the flash drive, its convenience by virtue of its portability, goes without saying.


Jim McLean is the inventor of the world's first and only playable harmonica USB flash drive, the "FlashHarp" (Pat. No. D602,940 & D624,550). FlashHarp is a registered trademark of FlashHarp Music LLC. Also "The Backyard Harmonica Teacher," McLean instructs the video harmonica lesson that's available on the FlashHarp. See McLean demo the invention at http://www.harmonicausbdrive.com. A product of Backyard Brand™, FlashHarp is also available packaged together with a full-size, 10-hole companion harmonica. Backyard Brand products may be purchased at http://www.backyardbrand.com.

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